Casey Sets-Up Historic Victory With Sizzling Travelers 62.

TPC River Highlands, CT …

Paul Casey will take a commanding four-shot into the final round as he looks to become the first Englishman to capture the Travelers Championship.

Casey, 40 brilliantly muscled his way to the front with sizzling third round eight-under par 62 to move to 16-under par on the TP River Highlands course in Cromwell, Connecticut.

The now Phoenix-based Casey capped his round in driving the green at the short 295-yard par-4 15th hole and then drained his 23-foot putt for an eagle ‘2’.

Casey went into the third round of the $USD 7m event sharing third place one eight-under par but raced into the lead thanks to back-to-back birdies at two and three and also at the eighth and ninth holes.

The current World No. 13 then moved to five-under for his round in birding the 13th before jumping to seven-under courtesy of the 15th hole eagle.

Casey then played a super second into the final green, a wedge from some 128-yard out to just three feet for a closing birdie.

The effort was Casey’s lowest score on the PGA Tour in well over three years since a similar 62 on day one of the 2015 Sony Hawaiian Open.

“There are a lot of things I like about this golf course including I like the fact that, as I said maybe yesterday or the day before, it’s a golf course which is open to all styles of play, having seen that with Bubba Watson, Corey Pavin play-off,” he said.

“There’s Jim Furyk shooting 58 two years ago and he’s not the longest guy on Tour.

“So, there is multiple ways of playing it. Good architecture, fantastic conditions, plus just a feeling of liking this event. You know this event where it sits in players’ kind of heart as their enjoyment of it. That’s just another factor of playing well.

“If you don’t like playing a tournament, you’re not going to play well because you don’t want to be there. And this is just a good vibe all the way around.”

Earlier this year in March, Casey ended a far too long nine-year wait to capture just his second PGA Tour title and in the process denying Tiger Woods in winning the Valspar Championship on Florida’s west coast.

Now six PGA Tour events later, and like the old No. 272 bus, Casey primed to win a third Tour title and if he did he would become the first England-born winner of the event since the inaugural Travelers Championship in 1952.

And as Casey mentioned above in singling out Bubba Watson, victory would make amends in losing to Watson in a play-off for the 2015 title.

“I’m excited. I’ve got confidence in my game. I’ve got confidence with the man standing next to me (caddy), confidence in the game plan of how to get around this golf course,” he said.

“I can’t, obviously, determine what everybody else is going to do, and I’ve got to sort of expect I’ve got to shoot something decent. I don’t know. I’ll go away and think about a number to kind of go and shoot and figure it out.

“The plans aren’t going to change, but it would be nice to get nearer 20 or something like that. You never know, because somebody could do what I’ve done today from already strong position. They shoot 8- under, look at the leader.”

American Russell Hendley (67) is in second place on 12-under par.

And Rory McIlroy will head into this final round in the U.S. before hosting next fortnight’s Irish Open having posted second straight 69 to drop from an overnight share of eighth place to a tie for 15th on eight-under.



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